4 The QUEE NS Courier • november 12, 2015 for breaking news visit www.qns.com CB 7 moves to rezone Whitestone development after not receiving size restriction BY ALINA SURIEL asuriel@queenscourier.com @alinangelica With one promise apparently broken, Community Board 7 (CB 7) decided on Monday to keep its promise regarding the future of the Waterpointe site in Whitestone. Members of CB 7 is pushing for a new zoning classification for Waterpointe — an 18-acre waterfront site where 52 single-family homes are to be built — after developers failed to deliver a promised deed restriction ensuring that the scale of development does not increase. Architect Joseph Sultana appeared on behalf of Waterpointe developer, the Edgestone Group, to offer the board a confirmatory deed, but not a deed restriction, according to CB 7 Zoning Committee Chair Joe Sweeney. While a confirmatory deed perfects an existing deed by changing some aspects and removing defects, a deed restriction is a more binding agreement that would apply to all future owners of the property. “Unfortunately the developer did not fulfill our request,” Sweeney said, “and therefore in order to protect the community of Whitestone, we feel that this is the best and appropriate manner so that the negative consequences will come to pass.” According to Sultana, Edgestone is still working to put in place the deed restriction even though the deadline set by CB 7 has passed. “The developer is willing to do whatever the community board wants and we’re trying prepare the correct legal language,” Sultana said. “We reached out to the community board this morning in order to correctly define the terms of the deed restriction, trying to get the correct language they want indicted.” For CB 7, however, it’s too little, too late. “We spent three years, nine meetings, and the net result is at the last meeting they give us something that we didn’t request,” Sweeney said. Sweeney has authored a letter to the City Planning Department on behalf The Waterpointe development includes 12 acres of land and 6 underwater acres. of CB 7 to inform the agency of the board’s request to the borough president to submit a land use proposal that would downzone the area from a manufacturing district to a singlefamily residence zone. This would codify many of the conditions the board had originally requested, such as the development of only singlefamily Photo courtesy of Cushman and Wakefield homes and the size and spacing of individual lots. “It means in the end that now it has to go to a completely new process,” Sweeney said, adding that after the borough president produces the rezoning proposal it would then have to go back to the community board again. LARGER-THAN-LIFE, PINK STATUE APPROVED FOR CONSTRUCTION IN LIC BY ANGELA MATUA amatua@queenscourier.com @AngelaMatua “The Sunbather,” a bright pink, 8.5-foot statue designed by Brooklyn artist Ohad Meromi, will be erected at Jackson and 43rd avenues in Long Island City in mid-2016. The artwork is part of the Department of Cultural Affairs’ (DCLA) Percent for Art Program, which began in 1982 and requires 1 percent of the budget for eligible city-funded construction projects to be spent on public artwork. The Public Design Commission (PDC) approved the plan on Oct. 26. According to a spokesman for the DCLA, the PDC will now work on a detailed timeline for the fabrication and installation of the sculpture, which will be completed next year. The piece, which will cost $515,000 in city tax dollars, sparked a debate at a Community Board 2 meeting last year, with several residents saying the size, color and price tag were too excessive. Some also argued that a local artist’s work should have been highlighted in the community. Councilman Jimmy Van Bramer also held a town hall meeting with Tom Finkelpearl, the commissioner of DCLA in March to discuss several topics, including the sculpture. According to Sara Reisman, former director for the Percent for Art Program, 40 artists, including local Long Island City artists, were presented to a panel that later picked finalists and ultimately chose Meromi’s piece. In response to the public outcry, Van Bramer sponsored Introduction 742-A, a bill that “The Sunbather,” an 8.5-foot statue, will be erected in Long Island City next year on Jackson and 43rd Avenues. requires the Department of Cultural Affairs to provide advance notification of its plans to include works of art in a Percent for Art project on DCLA’s website. The agency would also be required to present its plans in a public meeting, such as a community board meeting. City Council passed the bill in May. In an interview with the New York Times, Meromi said the criticism “doesn’t feel great” Photo courtesy of Department of Cultural Affairs and that the “introduction of color will be like a gift to the location, which is, like, gray and glass.” A spokesperson for DCLA said there were minor changes to the sculpture, mostly in the positioning, since it was presented to the community board. The Courier reached out to Community Board 2 and was awaiting comment as of press time.
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